24-25 June 2011 - Czech Republic pt3 Ceske Budejovice

I'd planned to come here long before setting off having used the town in an Urban Design paper for university. It's stunningly beautiful and at the heart of everything is a large square which, in a previous draft of this had about 8 paragraphs written about it! Consider yourselves lucky I've been up to quite a bit since then and need to get cracking updating the blog so will cut it right down.

Anyway, before all that, I'd got to town at 2ish, to find the hostel I'd booked didnt open until 5, it was above a Cuban themed pub, once you were in and had a key, you could come and go as you please, but before them, nothing to do but wait for it to open up. Again it was baking hot so found a park bench and grabbed a book. Within 5 minutes a tramp came to keep me company and as I hadn't got and Czech Koruna yet, had a fun negotiaton over a donation for him - 5 Euros? no I've only got 1, 4? no, 3?...

After that, two immaculately turned out young men were passing and caught sight of my English language book to introduce themselves as Americans. Turns out they're Mormons on a mission in the city for two years there to do the door to door knocking. After a long, long chat - to be honest there was nothing else to do - I was invited to a free meal that night to hear more Good News.

Directions to the Ceske Budejovice Mormon church / temple / house?

Cooking for myself in the hostel later started with a nutritionally balanced meal:

Ceske Budejovice is the home of the original Budweiser (now 'Budvar') brewery

But then I fried up some soup - everyone needs a break from heavy meat dishes sometimes:

Soup 2.0, if you're going to eat something healthy, at least fry it

So, to the point, Ceske's main square is the second biggest in this part of Europe, and beautiful. Surrounded with varied coloured and textured buildings (I really want to say 'rhythm' and 'pattern', but have left my urban designers regulation funky specs at home).

Ceske Budejovice square from the 'black tower'

Just as I was about to get my full geek on about how well they do car parking and a whole load of other little bits (the square is too big to feel comfortable in so they park cars facing inwards which makes it feel smaller and safe because of the constant movement and being overlooked), a load of bikers turned up to save me, and you, the pain of all that rambling.

You could hear them from miles away

There were hundreds of bikes

Never did get a call back...

Turn's out it was a bank holiday weekend and the local bike club was doing a big ride out, a policeman marshalling the event told me their name but it was one of those you'd have to write down. With that, another quiet night catching up on photos and e-mails, it was on to Austria the next day...

24 June 2011 - The Church of Bones (Czech Republic pt.2)

In the heart of the Czech region of Bohemia is Sedlec, a suburb of Kutna Hora, a town that prospered since iron mining began in the 1300s. Henry, the Abbot of the town’s Cistercian abbey, returned from a trip to the Holy Land with a handful of earth from Jerusalem. Being sprinkled with soil from the holy land, the graveyard at Sedlec became the place to be buried. Coupled with the Hussite Wars and plague, there was no shortage of recently deceased needing burial space. 

Successive redevelopments of the church and an overcrowded graveyard meant graves were cleared and bones put into the ‘ossuary’, a chapel for bones. After the church was acquired by a wealthy family, the Schwarzenburgs, the Sedlec ossuary became a chapel where human remains have been transformed into art and architecture.

Arriving early at Sedlec ossuary

Today the ossuary is open to view. Arriving there you’re struck by how normal the church is, knowing the grotesque displays in its basement. Walking round the graveyard outside is more eerie than being inside as lights shine against grimy windows casting shadows and firing up your imagination. Inside, the ossuary is much smaller than expected, and thanks to a lady clunking a heavy stamp onto entrance tickets, is less creepy than you’d expect, there are no dark corners to find yourself isolated in. That said I wouldn’t fancy being there overnight! 

Believing skeletal remains reminded the living of their inevitable death and judgement for their actions in life, the Schwarzenburgs stacked over 40,000 bones into four piles that symbolise the bells that would toll on the day of judgement. The more ‘decorative’ elements such as the chandelier, with every bone of the human body represented, were added after then and look so absolutely, completely unreal that it’s actually really very difficult to take in what’s around you. Perhaps being conditioned by Indiana Jones or the Lord of the Rings makes it difficult to appreciate how monstrous the surroundings are. 

Grotesque chandalier with every bone in the human body represented

Bell shaped pile of c10,000 bones

Cherub wuth human skull perched on its knee

c5ft tall chalice ornament

Stacked bones and skulls

Stacked bones, behind steel as they're loosely stacked so one nudge could send the pile falling

Ornamental skull on a pillar

Schwarzenburg coat of arms

There’s no reason to stay too long, the ossuary is really just one room and once you acclimatise to it, it’s time to move on. I haven’t seen the episode for a while, but getting back on my bike outside was strange knowing the Ewan McGregor / Charlie Bowman Long Way Round team had been in that exact place before. This is the only place my trip will overlap with their adventures, which makes plain how different place are when you travel in real life as opposed to seeing them on TV. I thought it was a creepy chapel in the back of beyond, but really it’s just down a side street in quite a busy little town with touristy infrastructure all around by way of cafe’s and gift shops. 

After only an hour or so, it was time to move onto Ceske Budejovice, home for the next two nights.

22-26 June 2011 - Czech Republic pt1:

Another country another currency, been flipping between Euros, Polish Zloty, back to Euros (Slovakia) and now to Czech Koruna, it gets tough to stay on top of how much your spending! My first point of call was Olomouc, chosen because it had a great value hostel and wasn’t too far from Poprad in Slovakia. The weather was baking hot and I was glad to just get into town, get the bike parked up and loose the biking clothes which are heavy and hot in the sun. 

Parked up over the road from Poets Corner Hostel

Olomouc was pleasant in a not-outstanding way. A church with a tower you were welcome to climb and a stereotypical European skyline was worth a look before tea at a brewery-pub. I’d intended to do more on the night but the brewery’s own brew was particularly strong. I’d had one with some food and asked for the bill, but wasn’t on top pronunciation form and the waiter came back smiling with a ‘beeeeeer’ rather than the ‘biiiiiiiilll’, ah well, what can you do! I’d thought the Poet’s Corner Hostel might be a bit arty farty from first appearances, but it was fine really, just with a real mixed bunch of lodgers – I was the only person in some time to only stay one night. It’s more a home from home for artsy types, but with enough normal folks to pass an easy night chatting with the mostly Aussies there. 

Olomouc from the church tower

It's likely I'm not going to be loosing weight on this trip...

Poet's Corner Hostel lounge

Poet's Corner - a home from home

I was taken with this sign

I’d all but decided not to go and climb Snezka, the highest mountain in the Czech Republic as it was a long haul from where I was and the weather was meant to be hit and miss. Luckily the humidity had broken in a huge thunderstorm overnight and full of energy from a few days rest, I decided to go for the big miles and get a first proper peak in. I don’t remember much of the ride, just a head down dash for 250kms to make Pec Pod Snezku, the start point before lunch time. 

Running a bit late, I got there and couldn’t find the start point of the walk my book described which was a stress as there were no obvious directions. Having ridden so for up one mountain on a whim, the mountain top restaurant I was aiming for came into view... on a mountain straight across the valet from where I was. A quick about turn and more trial and error got me to the right car park and changed out of my biking gear into better walking clothes in no time. 

Final bit of uphill...

Trig point on Snezka, highest point of the Czech Republic at 1,602m

Post Office on Snezka (its a skiing mountain so has a restaurant and all sorts on top)

The way back down

On reflection, as my legs have been in incredible pain since, I was a bit ambitious flying up the mountain as the people who wrote the book I was following described it as an easy 1.5 hours up and 1hr down. The time wasn’t far out, but easy was another matter. Maybe if you’d done Mont Blanc the week before it would be a breeze, but definately not the case if you haven’t. That’s the problem with biking, you feel exhausted, but its mental and the force of lugging heavy bags around, not aerobic which catches up with you quickly! Snezka is a skiing mountain in winter and the summit is covered with a church, restaurant and post office. Cards bought and lunch ate, I pretty much ran back down to try and keep a 6pm meeting time with Maude, another hastily arranged couch-surfing host (too many dull hotels lately!). 

Having pizza and a drink in an Irish pub much like any other (barring frequent plays of Meatloaf, something you hear coming from lots of bars here) in a pleasant small town called Kolin, we called it an early night as Maude was working and I wanted to make an early start to find the Church of Bones.

Irish pub with Maude, CouchSurfing host

Kolin town centre

It's worth saying whilst there's some wood to touch nearby, that my bike's been faultless so far - I appreciate there's not much about it in these posts, but it's simply done everything I need it to under great stress from my over packing. No complaints so far!

19-21 June 2011 - Slovakia

Sunday 19th June - left Poland via a trip to a former coal mining area with homes built for workers by the mine on a similar principle to Saltaire or Bourneville but with a bigger and brasher look suitable for a mining town. It's being tidied up ready for UNESCO World Heritage listing but unemployment is rife after the decline of local heavy industries and it's showing on the walls of once pristine workers homes. The robust soot stained buildings are in traditional grid blocks though larger than most with big park areas inside the square of the buildings now used more as car parking. I just can't remember the name of this place though and can't find it on a map! You really need to write everything down.

Saying goodbye to Kaja and Marcin with promises to meet up again in the future (they have friends in York by god fortune!) it was great to go for a short ride with Wojtek before he had to get back to studying for a final exam which it turns out he passed first time. Good work!

Red-brick style company housing

Central square

Saying goodbyes

Going for a ride with Wojtek

Riding with Wojtek with Marcin & Kaja in their car infront

 The next few days were a real comedown from an early high point. To be honest some poor planning on my side and the weather didn't help. Forgetting that not all the world is open on Sundays, I was expecting a long but straightforward ride from Poland into Poprad, a small mountain town, in Slovakia. On arrival I'd find a tourist information office and get some accommodation booked for around 20 Euros a night which is roughly on budget. After passing through several storms and getting a good soaking on the way, I couldn't find the tourist info place and the whole town at just 3pm had shut down, or never opened in the first place.

Nevermind though, because my SatNav has a feature to look up hotels near where you are. One I'd remembered the name of from looking on the internet was Aqua Park which looked like a swimming pool / leisure complex, that would do for a night. After trudging in heavy wet gear to an immaculate reception of the 3* hotel, I asked about the price for a single room. In perfect English the receptionist came back with E130. Clearing my through a little I could only stroke my chin and consider with a hmmmm. She tinkered with the computer and came with a special price of E115, much as I really didnt want to squelch out, back on the bike and ride round again, you could only justify that price if you had a lady to impress! When it's just me, a tiny room would be fine so long as it has a working heater...

Luckily the concierge guy also spoke English and understood from my miserable face what the case was, and offered up directions to the cheaper part of town. Having found a E50 hotel and talked a room down to E30 - the big hotels were all mostly empty so there's scope to negotiate - that was me for the next couple of days. The weather didnt improve so despite optimistically setting off to try and climb Rysy, the highest mountain in Poland (you have to climb from the Slovakian side and cross the border near the top) clouds continued to roll in and before I even got to the car park, rain started pouring. It's both dangerous and desperately uncomfortable climbing into clouds, so I decided to spend the next two days resting.

Entering Slovakia from Poland

Clouds rolling in over Rysy, the highest mountain in Poland

Rainbow following a storm

It sounds like I'm being idle but you really need time to do nothing but sit round, recover and take care of little jobs like sorting photos for a couple of days a week because tiredness really sneaks up on you. Having a couple of days doing very little (I did move hotel to one round the corner 7 Euros cheaper - every little helps!) it was back on the bike to my 7th country in almost as many days, the Czech Republic...

16-18 June 2011 - Poland

Big post... did lots. Left Magdeburg on a baking hot morning for Poland, the first totally new country of the trip with another three nights CouchSurfing arranged between Wroclaw and Siemianowice. 

People I’d spoken to on the way generally pulled faces about Poland’s roads, they have a reputation for being awful. The reality though, was much worse than that... For 50kms or so at least, then they’re fine, just like anywhere else on motorways but towns became a bit bumpy again. When you cross the border from Germany, the pool table smooth autobahn suddenly, you can literally trace the border line across the road, turns into lumpy black tarmac. A speed limit of 70km/h on the motorway isn’t for any speed reasons, you just can’t go any faster. 

After starting to panic about how far there was still to go, sooner or later the mad stripes of laid and re-laid and potholed and re-laid tarmac eventually came good. Driving standards also improved, I followed 7 vehicles all sat in the overtaking lane for about 10 minutes just in a big line with not a single car in the outside lane. People just pick which side of the road is less worse and stick with it. Must just be something about border areas, so far from major cities they get neither attention nor improvements.  

All that aside, I rolled into a new build estate on the edge of Wroclaw to meet CouchSurfing host Asia. She’s incredibly well travelled, a biker and fiercely proud of the city, with good reason. Wroclaw is beautiful with big Renaissance Germanic style buildings, each in distinct pastel colours arranged in figure 8 squares that all interlink through little alleyways and snickets. It’s compact, interesting, full of little details, gnomes hiding everywhere and bursting with life. We saw kids playing on movement sensing music mats, a garden exhibition, photo displays and a Capital of Culture bid tent. I voted twice.

Central Wroclaw

Wroclaw central square

Asia, CouchSurfing host

Wroclaw cathedral

The moon over a bridge to Wroclaw island

After having a beer to get out of the rain as a passing storm blew over, we went for a curry then a walk along the riverside and Wroclaw Island past the biggest cathedral as the moon was hovering just over the horizon in an orange haze. Another great night with interesting company.

The next few days were fantastic, the very best you could hope for. Through sheer luck I’d arranged to stay with a couple, Kaja and Marcin, in a town I’d never heard of, Siemianowice Slaskie. Apart from the joy of spending two nights in the same place, I’ve never been more welcome and well looked after from the first to last minute! Kaja’s family had us over for a BBQ on Saturday night at their gorgeous house. 

Getting the BBQ going

With Wojtek & Hania

Marcin & Kaya

Cute couple

Earlier on Saturday I'd been to the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. There’s no point making too much comment as everyone takes their own personal experiences and thoughts away. The main things that hit you though are how open the location is, and just how vast the site is. Auschwitz site 1 is apparently so busy you have to go round in tour groups which would be enlightening, but I’m glad I chose Birkenau to be able to walk round and take it in at my own pace.

It’s obviously a very sombre place, people walk round barely making a noise. Given its size there’s space to avoid the crowds of tourist groups which is good, but when you wander around a bit and end up the only person in the area, you soon start looking to find a few other people to keep in sight. Photo's on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stumuxlow/sets/72157626873908645/

I had to go, and was expecting to be in a bit of a funk over the next few days. Fortunately though, I was so lucky to be able to contrast the very worst of the world, with the very best, the kindness of strangers. I was watching a random travel program where a Croatian farmer said something akin to, “happiness is in small things”. There was no greater contrast to the incomprehensible evil of nations than time spent with new friends who’ve taken it upon themselves to make a stranger welcome in their family.

14 & 15 June 2011 - Netherlands & Germany

On the way from Belgium, there was just time to get to the highest point in the Netherlands, not mans greatest achievement, but its another high point to tick off. The site has a car park with a maze, cafes and an observation tower. A group of miserable looking monks were arriving in a knackered Volvo 440, hope they'd not travelled too far, it's no Tibet!

Vaas - highest point in the Netherlands

Border of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

I’d met Wendy and her boyfriend Maartin last year and couldn’t wait to see them again, not least because Wendy lives in a former school as part of a group of live-in caretakers / security people for the owners until its ready to be developed. The bonus is indoor parking, riding a motorbike indoors, in a school, is always fun.

The three of us went for a meal, met a baby blackbird that was stalking outdoor diners then caught The Hangover 2 film. 4 stars. Much better than expected despite all the “I can’t believe this is happening again” lines.

A cheeky bird stops by for a drink

Indoor parking

There’s so much to love about the Netherlands, from gorgeous streets to cinemas that serve bottled Grolsh and have sofas for couples to cuddle up, why not! If Britain had got the art of making streets down as well as the Dutch, it’s unimaginable how beautiful it could be now.  Roads with shared surfaces between cars, pedestrians and cyclists with no road markings, railings or any other furniture just make traffic and people behave appropriately for the space. I’d be amazed if there’s better anywhere in the world.

Typically tidy Dutch street without excess clutter

Got away early after wishing Wendy well for her year or more working in Australia for a monster 500km ride to Magdeburg in Germany. Motorway miles on a motorbike are awful, especially 6 or 7 hours in one go. The wind noise drones on and there’s nothing to see at the roadside. All you can do is get some good in-ear earphones and load up some podcasts to while away the miles. Midlife Gamer, Outside the Cinema and How Stuff Works are all good listening.

Magdeburg was over the border of the old East Germany, and whilst it’s subtle, you can still see a difference between east and west in now redundant lookout towers, old roadside checkpoints and huge pine forests. 

For a city not on any tourist maps, Magdeburg was a good night. CouchSurfing again with a great host which pretty much goes without saying from that site. A walk around town to see the best of what’s there and a few beers was a perfect end to a long day.

The old Post Office sign

A Hawley / Clow development

Hundertwasser's last big scheme before he died

Magdeburg new bridge

Bridge detail

Magdeburg old bridge